Hans-Joachim Pahnke Book

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Introduction from Michael Pahnke
Michael Pahnke, Managing Director of
WEPUKO PAHNKE GmbH
The 80-year corporate anniversary of WEPUKO in 2012 coincides with the 55-year
anniversary of two significant developments by my father, Hans-Joachim Pahnke. My
father became involved with the company in the fifties, specifically with oil-hydraulics.
The development of a powerful oil-hydraulic radial piston pump started in approximately
1957, and was initially made under license by WEPUKO with the model name
“RP“. The pump was further developed by WEPUKO and is still in use today under the
model name “RX“. With its unparalleled output adjusting speed and with a capacity
of up to 600 kW, there is no pump in the market that compares to it.
The other pioneering development was an open die press with a two-column under
floor construction. This design, in accordance with a patent from Dreyer, was revolutionary
at the time. It was the first open die forging press with two columns and the
first with the main drive cylinder below ground. Despite this construction being unconventional,
it was quickly adopted by various competitors domestically and abroad.
This construction principle was improved considerably by my father during the sixties
and then became the standard for small and medium-sized hydraulic presses in the
mid-seventies.
Further inventions from Hans-Joachim Pahnke were, in 1970,
a hydraulically-driven four hammer forging machine – this
innovation was also adopted about 20 years later by other
machine builders – and in 1975 the oil-hydraulic “sine drive“
for forging presses, which was subsequently renamed
“PMSD“. This innovation allowed the press movement to be
controlled directly by servo-controlled pumps without being
interconnected by valves. This significantly reduces the
shock loads on the system, providing higher availability and
very low energy consumption. And still today this design
principle also has no peers.
In the course of his career, my father wrote more than three
dozen publications in technical journals, received approximately
20 patents and contributed to many additional patents
or registered designs of his colleagues. He also worked
intensively with the technology of open die forging and constructed
the first fully-programmable forging press, where
the entire forging process is carried out in accordance to a
theoretical program. He became one of the leading and
best-known experts on hydraulic presses in the world.
His professional success and scientific developments are
even more astonishing, considering that he only had a basic
secondary school level certificate, due to the fact the 15-year-old
orphan was not able to pay school fees that were required
for a grammar school in those days. After the war,
through great personal sacrifice, he completed his engineering
study, where he finished this schooling in only two years
instead of the usual three.
In 1973, Hans-Joachim Pahnke founded his own company for
hydraulic forging presses and at the age of 70 he took over
the high-pressure pump manufacturer WEPUKO. He led this
company out of a 10-year period of stagnation until I was
provided the leadership opportunity in 1999. Unfortunately
my father was not able to experience the continued success
of WEPUKO including the PAHNKE presses. After suffering
several strokes in 2002, he only had a very limited perception
of the world up to his death in 2010.
At this point I want to say a special “thank you“ to my wife
Tanja, who with her whole heart took care of my father
many years. She had the idea for this book.
He also created very successful designs for large hydraulic closed die forging presses.
My father was not just a great engineer, he was also a successful and
widely-respected businessman, who was just as popular with his
employees, who he passionately guided in their pursuit of excellence, as
he was with his business partners. For this reason, he had many friends,
who brought pleasure to his long and at times demanding life.